


Mother knows best

by Hekate1308



Series: Balance and New Beginnings [3]
Category: Supernatural
Genre: Dean left the bunker because of the Men of Letters, Gen, M/M, not very mary friendly, season 12 au
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-02
Updated: 2017-04-02
Packaged: 2018-10-13 22:43:17
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,620
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10523433
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Hekate1308/pseuds/Hekate1308
Summary: She is not surprised when Dean leaves. Although she loves her boys dearly, she noticed soon after her return from the dead that her oldest is sadly not exactly bright. A good hunter, an excellent fighter, but not smart like Sam.





	

She is not surprised when Dean leaves. Although she loves her boys dearly, she noticed soon after her return from the dead that her oldest is sadly not exactly bright. A good hunter, an excellent fighter, but not smart like Sam.

Even as a child, she always adored his warmth, not his mind, and that hasn’t changed. Although he has been rather short with her ever since she realized the British Men of Letters could mean the salvation of their family.

He’ll come around once he sees, once he realizes. When all the monsters are gone and he’s free to live a full life.

Sam misses him, of course. How could he not? They’ve been so close. Dean was so excited to become a big brother in the old times...

Everything will turn out for the best. She’ll save her sons from this life, and they’ll be a family again.

Once the work her husband set out to do is done.                         

God, she misses John. He could have helped keep their sons on the right path.

Sam grows more and more silent as the weeks pass. She thinks it’s just him immersing himself in the task before them, until –

Until.

She was talking to Ketch, detailing their plans to get rid of ghouls. They always creeped her out, and her father tended to leave them to her so she could learn not to be scared.

There’ll be no reason to be scared anymore soon enough.

But when she looks for Sam later that evening, she can’t find him.

What she does find are items used in summoning and a broken devil’s trap.

What did he summon? Did it get out and attack? No; there’s no blood or signs of a struggle.

But why would Sam summon anything in the first place? They get all the intel they need from the Men of Letters.

She tries calling him, but he doesn’t answer.

It’s troubling. Sam always answers. It’s much more like Dean not to.

A few hours later, Mary is contemplating calling Mick. She doesn’t feel comfortable with the idea of Ketch looking for her son, but Mick –

She gets a text.

_Figuring stuff out. Please don’t call for a while. I’m safe. Love you, Mom. Sam._

She frowns. Sam has everything figured out already; what can he possibly want?

And with a summoning, of all things.

When Mick shows up, she lies.

There’s no point in him judging Sam for needing a bit of time for himself.

But just like with Dean – she expected to see him back on their doorstep for months after he vanished, since she wasn’t convinced he could deal all on his own – Sam stays away for months on end.

The Men of Letters notice eventually.

“I haven’t seen Sam in a while” Mick observes one day.

“He left” she says shortly.

“Like Dean?”

She shrugs.

“He said he had to “figure stuff out””.

Mick hums. “I expected different, from their reputations.”

“They’re not used to your methods” she answers sharply.

“Our methods” he reminds her.

Yes. Of course. Their methods.

The Men of Letters just have better gadgets, more knowledge, and they are actually capable of wiping out the vermin.

Why can’t her boys see that?

And yet, despite everything –

Strangely not only does the trend of hunters disagreeing with them continue, but they seem to kill less and less monsters. With every day that passes, there’s one more vampire who’s mysteriously disappeared, or a pack of werewolves that has moved away by the time they get there.

It’s happening all over, apparently.

They have no explanation for it.

Until they stumble across it.

Or rather, it’s Mary herself who stumbles across it.

She’s busy gathering info in a small town; she is certain ghouls were active here in the last few months, if only eating corpses (the thought makes her shudder), but she hasn’t been able to find a single trace of them.

She’s walking back to her motel, kicking away a piece of paper to get rid of her frustration, when she glances at the window of a diner across the street.

The sight makes her stop dead in her tracks.

It’s the boys.

And not just the boys; the angel is there with them too, and the –

Is the King of Hell laughing at something Dean said?

Apparently so.

And Sam’s laughing with him.

She doesn’t understand.

Sam got it. Sam knew what needs to be done. And now he’s having dinner with a demon.

She’s entering the diner before she has time to think about it.

And when her sons, her sons, turn around and see her, they don’t seem happy. At all.

“Look at that, Mummy Winchester’s here” the demon says, looking completely relaxed in the company of two of the deadliest hunters of their generation.

Cas nods at her.

Sam says, slowly, “Hey, Mom.”

“Mary” Dean greets her at the same time.

“What are you doing here?” she demands.

“I think we should be the ones to ask” Dean says calmly.

Huh. She thought his anger – not that he should be angry at her, he was the one who left – burned hot.

He looks good though, she decides. Well-rested, clean-shaven, relaxed, leaning into Castiel’s side –

Maybe that’s normal among male friends these days. She wouldn’t know.

“I was hunting for a family of ghouls” she begins, drawing up a chair. They are here, they might as well work together. “I can’t find them, but we need to – “

“Am I the only one” the demon drawls “who realizes no one asked her to sit down?”

“Shut up” she hisses. “I am talking to my sons.”

For a second, she thinks Dean is about to say something to Crowley, but then he leans back, something like amusement flashing over his face so quickly she can’t be sure she’s right.

“Actually” the demon says slowly, “You are talking to your sons, son-in-law and family friend.”

It takes her a moment to understand.

At first, she’s mostly disgusted that the demon would call himself a friend and that the boys say nothing against it.

And then it sets in.

_Son-in-law._

Son-in-law? As in –

But –

She turns her head to stare at Dean and Cas.

Her older son demonstratively brings the angel’s hand up to his mouth and kisses it.

Oh God.

She knew of such things, of course. She knew it isn’t forbidden anymore, but –

Do they really have to do that in front of everyone?

“How long has this been going on?”

“Since I left, if I am being honest” Dean shrugs.

“I can attest to that” the demon supplies, sipping what looks like whiskey.

She forces herself not to roll her eyes. From what she has seen, children are nervous about telling their parents this sort of thing; and whether he left or not, he’s still her son.

“But you are... happy” she says carefully.

Dean beams.

“You have no idea.”

This time, it’s the angel who kisses his hand.

Is it just her or is there something... different about him?

And why is there a plate in front of him to begin with. She thought angels don’t need to eat or sleep.

But that seems to be a loaded question, sicne Dean just told her he’s in a relationship with –

She turns to Sam.

“Did you meet up on the case?”

Sam stayed for a year after Dean left. Sam agreed with her. She can’t imagine he would just leave them and go back to Dean and the life on the road he’d tried so hard to leave behind.

“No. We’re hunting together” he says.

“As in – “

“Okay, let me do the short-hand for you. You see, Mummy, turns out Moose isn’t so blockheaded after all and had enough of monster genocide, so he joined the walking Hallmark commercial on their own quest to make the world a better place. As far as I would say, it’s working” Crowley announces. After a pause he adds, “Not that I approve, of course. The world needs some sinners”.

“What do you mean?” she demands, getting angry.

There’s no other way but theirs. The boys can’t believe they can manage to kill all the monsters on their own...

“Did you get rid of the ghouls, then?”

“Yes” Dean says, “trust me, they’re not here anymore.”

“So they are dead?”

“Mom, keep your voice down” Sam interrupts.

She shoots him an irritated look.

“I want an answer.”

And then her youngest son, who fought beside her for months, looks at her and carelessly replies, “No.”

“What!?”

“They weren’t hurting anyone, Mary” Dean interjects.

Mary. Again. And that tone. And the face is back.

“Dean Winchester, you have no right – “

“Dean has every right to treat you as you insist on treating him” Cas announces, and Dean looks at him –

Like she used to look at John, once upon a time.

God. They’re not simply together – Dean is in love with the angel.

With a supernatural being.

And best friends with one apparently too, if the ease the demon is exhibiting is any indication.

It’s everything she never wanted for her sons.

Not only that – on top of everything, they seem to deal with monsters _by sending them away?_

What good will that do? They’ll just go on killing and eating corpses in another city.

She stands up. She can’t deal with this. She needs to think. She needs to make a plan to get them back on track.

“I’ll see myself out”.

Only Sam tells her goodbye.

Mary leaves the diner more determined than ever.

Since she came back, she has been working to save her boys.

And she will.

And they will understand.


End file.
